Iraq Gets a Pass On Half of White House's Benchmarks
By Nicole Belle Friday Sep 14, 2007 2:31pm Guest blogged by Bill W.
In this latest White House " Benchmark Assessment Report" (pdf) released yesterday, Bushco now claims the Iraqi government has "satisfactorily" met 9 of the 18 specific benchmarks the White House itself set back in May, up from the 8 benchmarks Bush claimed they had achieved in July, which not surprisingly is a far cry from the sobering GAO report just last week which found that only 3 of the White House's benchmarks for progress in Iraq had yet been met.
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CNN's Ed Henry explains how the White House's crack team of number crunchers came to their much rosier assessment:
"The White House is getting awfully creative in how it's grading the Iraqi Government's success or failure." (....)
"The White House gave a positive rating on any benchmark where "present trend data demonstrates a positive trajectory, which is tracking toward satisfactory accomplishment" In other words: Thumbs-up for a benchmark that might be met eventually."
So, even if we accept the White House's flawed formulary
The White House had already set the bar fairly low for the Iraqi Government as the entire purpose for their creating these 18 benchmarks in the first place was so they could trumpet their great success in tandem with Gen Potemkin's report right before the upcoming '08 Defense budget showdown in Congress. Now, having failed their own 'No Iraqi Government Left Behind Act,' they want another F.U. so they can take a make-up test whereby they're already foreshadowing that by then the Iraqi Government might possibly meet but half of the White House's standard. sigh
Ed Henry:
"Now, in July when the preliminary report on White House benchmarks came out and had bad grades for the Iraqi Government, the White House said wait until September, and now September's here. The report card is not good again, The White House is saying, 'Wait until March,' when there will be yet another report card. Where have we heard that, Suzanne?"
Suzanne Malveaux:
"We've heard it again and again."
You know, "There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee ..."
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Frist!!!
Many a hernia caused by many a moving goalpost
Expect to see the goal posts completely torn down before this game is over.
Perfect. Mission Accomplished!
That should shut up you loony commie, terrorist, Jesus-hating, baby killing, left-winged America haters!
"Ha ha! We keep hearing the same bullshit again and again, eh Ed? Ha ha!"
Until congressional democrats begin to state the obvious in clear, straightforward language, I'll hold them in utter contempt: the Bush administration routinely Big Lies, and is absolutely untrustworthy.
Just because a benchmark may have a positive trajectory doesn't mean it will be achieved any time soon. This is just more of the same from the bush camp. Don't admit to failure, and leave the mess for whoever takes office after him. You would think that the Dems would fight him more, since they are expected to take the White House next. If I was in their position, I wouldn't want to step into a position like that as soon as I take office.
Boy this smells like Enron's "theoretical future value".
Wish W would use the same standard on these benchmarks that he does with NCLB. If so, this war would be be the cause of his being replaced because of failing the benchmarks.
Calling it a passing grade if "the trend is in the right direction" is bad, but I don't think it's quite as bad as the murder calculations that leave out car bombs and anybody shot in the face.
Of course, the entire point of a benchmark (versus a goal) is that it being met is an indicator of progress, so does this mean that our "goal" has shifted from "Democratic, peaceful Iraq" to whatever those 18 former-benchmarks was?
And then there's the fact that if "present trend data demonstrates a positive trajectory" is how "success" is measured, then shouldn't everything else--things that "present trend data demonstrates a" trajectory toward total disaster--be already counted as abject failure?
I can't think of anyone who still believes this jerk, and believe me, I'm in the very heart of Red-neck, Fundy-Fascist South Carolina.
Let me see if I understand this:
Now that Bush has little to no political capital left and he's an admitted lame duck, our sorry-ass American media fianlly grows a pair of teeny-tiny testicles. The cowardice and dereliction of duty on the part of the mainstream US media makes me sick... FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, plus all the shitty American papers who helped create this war need to be ran out of the journalism business!
. . .might be met eventually.“
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Like another ice age, perhaps? And around the same time, perhaps?
FreeDUMB @ 8:
AARRRGGHH ! You beat me to it ! Yes this is EXACTLY what brought down Enron, and here we have the same three card monte players from the oil patch attempting to push this on the American people . JAIL 'EM ALL before they crash the U.S. economy !!!!
Reckon they'll let me approach my massive student loan payback the same way? I feel like I'm on a trajectory to paying it off... after I'm dead!
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
Glenn Greenwald has an important (and guaranteed to piss you off) article about combat-experience-free war cheerleaders opposing Senator Webb's troop relief bill; I wouldn't mind seeing this issue get a little more exposure.
"Sadr's movement pulls out of Iraq alliance "
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070915/ts_nm/iraq_dc
Creation Theory
This is not a first for the White House.They have been in the creation business since the beginning of the war. Instead of reporting what was going on, they were hard at work creating their own news for CNN to deliver to their viewers. However, this may be a first for CNN. They usually back the president up on his misinformation drives.
When I think of how much laying CNN as did for this president, I wonder "why" they are braking from their usual. Although I have posted this before, in an earlier story, it bares significance now, so I will post it again:
As a kid, I watched Westerns that showed how the cowboy slept with one eye open, so he could catch the bad guys trying to put one passed him. The same kind of caution should be used when CNN develops an interest in Bush's misinformation drives.
Joseph
Got beat to the Enron's "theoretical future value" point by above commentors. "Good will" is another one.
These boneheads have a limitless appetite and capacity for self-deception. And just like the criminals who ran ENRON, these gangsters are putting the finishing touches on the destruction of America.
If they continue to let the whorehouse dictate things by Monday iraq will not only have fulfilled ALL benchmarks but they'll be breaking ground for the new Middle East Diznee Land and the insurgents will be looking for jobs.
Propaganda time!
And the US will nod their heads knowingly and accept the screwing with a smile.
And in 5 years if it comes up again, what will be remembered is what GW said.
I'm disgusted with this country, Europe looks like a paradise of free thought and haven of truth compared to this wasteland of ego maniacal liars. Time to pack, I've waited far too long.
Pissed-American @ 11:
Really... you have to wonder just where the 29%ers actually lurk.
Happenstance @ 16:
Funny how those with combat experience are wary about this war. Hell, even Bush Sr. knew to get the hell out once Saddam retreated from Kuwait.
MargeAggedon @ 20:
If that's the case, then something tells me that Fantazy Land (Alexandria, Egypt) will no longer be the shittiest theme park in the Middle East.
Bush gives himself an ass kickin grade.
I bet I win the Powerball Lottery before Iraq hits even 75 percent of its benchmarks.
Yet when you talk about unattained benchmarks, Tony Snow says that they are CONGRESS'S benchmarks, not the WH's. So why is the WH even talking about them?
Maybe it's the chemo. Maybe it's the fentanyl lollypops. Either way, Snow is a liar.
Fools on the Hill @ 25:
He needs a high grade ass kickin.
This is pretty much the same thing as they did with The GAO report. The Whitehouse watered down the GAO report by creating a new category. There was no category called "partially met" before the Whitehouse poured a bucket of water on the report.
"Partially met " is a meaningless category because there is no standard for partially met. Partially met could be anything from 1% to 99%. The one thing you can be certain of is that "partially met" didn't mean the same thing as "met". The results are still the same for the GAO report as they were before the Whitehouse spin machine got a hold of the report, 15 of 18 benchmarks were not met.
It is refreshing to see the CNN folks doing some fact checking for a change, but Ed Henry always has played it pretty straight
I thought once it became clear that very few of them would be reached, that they became "Congress' benchmarks"...
Those so-called "benchmarks" seem suspciously flexible.
They should call 'em stretchmarks.
.
Decider math is always correct
.
We have clear intelligence that Iraq has a program for the possible acquisition of the means of passing their benchmarks.
You know, either Bush is a total sociopath or he has some of the absolute worst advisors any person could have. Maybe, it even both.
"Might be met eventually?" Man, I wish my teachers in school graded on a curve like this. "Now, you got a 'D' on your math test, but you might eventually get an 'A', so we'll give you a pass."
gf120581 @ 35:
Exactly. there's nothing left to say.
Ah yes, those benchmarks. I say, give it a surge of troops and six more months, you'll see. Oh there'll be a big difference. And we'll get some fancy general to report to the Senate live about how great things is a goin' then too. Just wait. Calm down, relax, surge in oh, 30 or 40,000 more troops and watch them benchmarks get broken in record numbers. OOPS. Been there, done that.
The last time I asked my employer for a raise, I said they ought to consider that in my gut I feel I should get a "Thumbs-up for a benchmark that might be met eventually." They didn't buy that. Would you?
Decider math-- 0+3=9
Major Mel Funkshion @ 39:
"Rarely is the question asked, is our [Preznit] learning?"
The answer obviously is 'NO".
And until now that's been the msm, but from the looks of this video, Ed Henry and Suzanne Malveaux ran out of the koolaid.
I like it! With that grading system, I should never have failed that algebra test, since eventually I was able to do some algebra.
I was trending towards success!
Me Likey!
They keep lowering the bar. If we wait another week or so, they will have met all the benchmarks, and possibly finished the next set we plan to put forward. What a dunce.
I still can't understand how someone can say this twit has intelligence. He is a stooge and a real dumb ass from all that I have seen. He even has the blank, stupid dumb ass look on his face half the time I see him on tv. He either has that stupid blank stare or that shit eating smirk. I'm not sure which makes me more ashamed of my country these days.
The same person who graded W's college scores must be in charge of this whole benchmark system.
9 OF 18 is 50%.When I was in school if you got a 50 on a test you failed.
WTF.Why does Bush think this is good--even though he is lying his ass off as usual--?
Jim @ 1:
I am first,Jim.I had a positive trajectory that was trending toward the satisfactory accomplishment of being first so therefore I am first.
“The White House gave a positive rating on any benchmark where “present trend data demonstrates a positive trajectory, which is tracking toward satisfactory accomplishment” In other words: Thumbs-up for a benchmark that might be met eventually.“
Hmmmm...sounds like....
Frances Fragos Townsend, assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, was on CNN yesterday discussing the war in Iraq, Saddam's pending execution, and the Middle East, but CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry had the temerity to ask about the terrorist behind 9/11.
HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we're going to get him. Still don't have him. I know you are saying there's successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That's a failure.
TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.
And, lest we forget, the reason we invaded Iraq in the first place, per the administration, was that Saddam might attack us in the future.
Or, as Townsend might put it: "Iraq is guilty of carrying out an attack on America that hasn't occurred yet."
Is Russia next, after Iran? Who knows...Putin might regain control of most of the nukes in the former USSR regions and may start Cold War II.
We Americans deserve what we are getting for being so tolerant of wealthy criminals and liars.
According to Bush's own math he's one of the pupils the country is trying to save under his "No Child Left Behind" law.
Now the republicans are gearing up for the war against math.
Thats a Bush-Yale pass fail.
Why should Iraq even have to meet any arbitrary benchmarks set by those who invaded their soverign nation and caused the death of millions and destruction of their homeland? ? Duh?
It's called the "New Math". Part of Junyah's "No Child Left Behind" policy.
well the white house should certainly know whats going on, after all the commander in chief spent 6 hours "in country".
bush co.s predictability is laughable if it werent for the fact that they still have just enough koolaids drinkers to blocks real progress.
"So, even if we accept the White House’s flawed formulary claiming success for all of the benchmarks that “might be met eventually,” is that not then an implicit admission that none of the remaining benchmarks stand any chance of being met at all??"
bush's reply might be something like "oh damn logic. stop it hurts"
A puny president gets even punier. He is a puny man.
Loonie @ 57:
He's a MAN? (puny or not)
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